All we (Friends of Birds Marsh) have ever wanted was to preserve the wood and fields for the wildlife and all who use and enjoy it.

Five years ago when we revived our campaign against the development we asked various organisations if they wanted to help us. We had support from the Woodland Trust, the Forestry Commission and CPRE among others. Wiltshire Wildlife Trust said that it was an insignificant wood of very little value. It’s amazing how things change once money comes into the equation!

Over the 35 years I have walked the fields and wood there has been very little management and the wood and hedgerows are thriving.

Many of the people who talk in derogatory terms have never visited it. We have many colourful species of rhododendrons and soon there will be a display of bluebells, one of the best in Wiltshire.

The top field is a buffer zone and nothing is to be built on it. Who would want an allotment to grow fruit and vegetables next to a road which they say will become a bypass when they find the money for the other sections? The pollution from the road will make it unacceptable as will building the proposed school next to this road. Children have a right to clean air.

The Government said 18 months ago that Chippenham had the least green space per capita in the whole of the counrty. We need some space to enjoy and for the children of the future.

Irene Sinclair, Vice-chairman Friends of Bird Marsh, Ashe Crescent, Chippenham